Engage the toddler in language-rich and child-directed interactions, making sure you are highly attuned and responsive to the communicative attempts of the toddler. You should also aim to use a toddler’s interests and provide language models that are at a slightly higher level than the toddler’s own language to elicit a target behavior.
Following are some strategies that can be used to maintain a toddler’s interests and provide language models that are at a slightly higher level than the toddler’s own language use. For some toddlers, these techniques will facilitate their use of the target behavior.
Team members engage the toddler in a language-rich, child-directed, and reciprocal interaction that involves a variety of techniques. The following examples are described in more detail.
Continue to review details of each technique.
Following the toddler’s lead involves allowing the child to direct the interaction and the activity. Rather than the interventionist having a set plan (e.g., to play in the toy house), she waits and sees what the toddler wants to do. If the toddler goes to the toy house, she engages him there; and, if the child goes to the block area, she engages him with the blocks. Remember that the environment has already been arranged to elicit specific targets, so either activity should lead to the desired target.
For some toddlers, the interventionists must be especially observant and patient in order to follow the toddler’s lead. If a toddler has a more passive temperament, it may be difficult to entice the toddler to seek out his or her interests. When this occurs, the interventionist may be tempted to become more directive. For example, an interventionis might say to a toddler, “Here’s a puzzle! Let’s do it!”
However, the interventionist is encouraged to be patient, watch for nonverbal indications of interest (such as the toddler reaching for the puzzle), and match the toddler’s activity level. An example of this might be if the toddler is pouring sand over and over, the interventionist might join the toddler in this activity rather than encouraging her to make a sandcastle.
With toddlers, being at their level often means that the interventions may have to lie or sit on the floor while the child is on the floor or couch to share face-to-face interactions. This kind of positioning facilitates shared attention, which is crucial to the interactions.
For toddlers who avoid eye contact, it may be necessary for the interventionist to maneuver her own body to interrupt the toddler’s eye gaze. That is, if the child is looking toward the clock while playing with a koosh ball, the interventionist may need to put her own face in the line of the clock to encourage eye contact and establish shared attention. However, if a toddler finds eye contact unpleasant and is actively avoiding eye contact, it may be best to engage the toddler in an interaction without insisting upon eye contact.
When joining toddlers in play, interventionists must be vigilant in watching for toddlers’ communicative cues. A child who wants a snack that is out of reach may glance toward it and vocalize. An attuned interventionist recognizes this as a communicative attempt and responds. Being aware of even the most subtle communicative attempts and responding to these attempts teaches the toddler that communication is powerful. Catching these subtle attempts reduces missed opportunities for engagement, a common error in learning to respond to a toddler’s initiations, especially for toddlers with less apparent or infrequent communication and social behaviors.
This imitation can encourage turn-taking and facilitate the back-and-forth dance of social communication.
EXAMPLE
If a child holds a puzzle piece up to her face and says, “ga,” the interventionist can hold a puzzle piece up to his own mouth and say, “ga.”
Interrupting a routine with a pause or doing something novel that the toddler finds funny or interesting can keep a toddler engaged in an interaction.
EXAMPLE
Make a funny face as you reveal yourself after a few rounds of peek-a-boo or pause at the end of a line of a song, “The itsy bitsy spider went up the water...”
Responding to a toddler’s communicative attempts with words, or meaningful verbal feedback, gives the child a model while they are sharing attention with the interventionist.
EXAMPLE
A minimally verbal toddler may be trying to place a puzzle piece and say,
“Ta!”
The interventionist, available and engaged, can respond,
“Stuck! That piece is stuck! Let’s turn it.”
When a toddler is verbal, especially at the one- to three-word phrase level, the interventionist can build on what the toddler says, thereby demonstrating more linguistically sophisticated options, as in this script:
Toddler (with toy cars): “Car.”
Interventionist (pushes car): “Car. Go, car!”
Toddler: “Go, car!”
Interventionist: “Go, car! Fast!”
For most children with ASD, it will be necessary to provide additional supports and strategies for learners to demonstrate the target behaviors.
This video segment gives a brief snapshot of how a play session on the floor may be conducive to eliciting target behaviors by using the strategies described.